


The Future Seemed So Bright

by roswyrm



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Assumed Relationship, Awkwardness, Captivity, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Miscommunication, Oblivious, Pining, Self-Indulgent, Sleep Deprivation, Spoilers for 128, anyway can you believe zolf is canon bi ace, bc he IS and i am LIVING, hamid thinks hes not in love with zolf and hes so very very incorrect, spec fic, this is GONNA be canon divergent but it isnt YET
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-07-17
Packaged: 2020-06-30 09:42:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19850536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roswyrm/pseuds/roswyrm
Summary: Hamid isn't jealous. He doesn't have anything to be jealous over, not really, he just — well, when did Zolf becomeOscar'sbest friend?





	The Future Seemed So Bright

**Author's Note:**

> ZOLF'S BACK. SAD SEA DAD HAS RETURNED. I'VE BEEN SCREAMING FOR THE PAST HOUR STRAIGHT. THANK YOU BENJAMIN MEREDITH FOR MY RIGHTS. Working Title: _holy shit y'all_

They’ve been stuck in the dungeon for four days (Hamid _thinks_ it’s four days; they’ve slept four times, at least) when there’s a sudden scraping noise from down the corridor. Azu’s up in half a second, great axe drawn, and Hamid is beside her, magic missile sputtering out just beneath his skin. Zolf seems less worried, but a bit more confused. “What– is someone else down here?” Hamid asks, reaching for his crossbow instead of his magic.

Zolf opens his mouth to respond, looking puzzled as anything, before something must click, and he groans. “Damnit. Stay here.” He sticks a scrap of cloth in between the pages of his book and gets to his feet, leaving the glaive where it is. Clearly not a threat, at least, which is better than Hamid expected.

“Where else are we going to go?” Hamid snaps, “You’ve still got us locked _in a cage.”_ Zolf doesn’t respond other than a vague, dismissive hand gesture as he walks on, so Hamid shakes the bars in his general direction. (The bars don’t move because they’re made of adamantine and Hamid is a halfling, but it’s the sentiment that counts.) Zolf disappears down the corridor, footsteps echoing oddly around the stone walls, and Hamid glares after him. Azu cocks her head. Hamid starts to ask, “Well, should we be—” only to get shushed.

Hamid makes a mildly offended noise. Azu waves at him and explains, “If we’re quiet, we can eavesdrop.” Hamid doesn’t care for how often his friends (or, well, his friend _and also Zolf,_ who is back, but utterly useless and different and patronising and– just, generally not how Hamid remembers) are waving him away today, but Azu does make a good point. Hamid perks his ears up and gets closer to the bars in the direction that Zolf left, hoping to catch something.

Faintly, low but loud enough that Hamid can pick it up, “You said you’d sleep.”

A sigh, and then Oscar (so he _is_ still here!) grumbles, “I tried.”

“Try again. Maybe do better this time.”

“That’s not how it _works,_ Zolf, we’ve talked about this.”

“Yeah, we’ve also talked about how sleep makes you not-useless. C’mon.” Silence, another scrape, and then, the loudest of anything so far, _“Wilde.”_

“Yes?”

“Stop. Go get some rest.”

Another sigh, and then the sound of a chair moving back along the floor, and joints popping after being stuck in one position for too long. Oscar asks, “What _is_ it with you and trying to get me to bed?” And Hamid doesn’t know whether to be relieved that Oscar is feeling well enough to make jokes or annoyed that despite everything, he’s still Like That.

Zolf makes a shallow sound of amusement, and that makes Hamid angry for reasons he can’t express. He last saw Zolf weeks ago, at the tail end of a crisis in a brewery in Prague, and now suddenly it’s been over a year, and everything is different, and Zolf is _laughing at Oscar Wilde’s jokes,_ and it makes his jaw clench and his blood boil. “Least you know I’m clean,” Zolf returns in the same tone of voice, so clearly a joke that it almost drowns out the words he’s saying; Oscar huffs a laugh at that, and claws dig into the meat of Hamid’s hands. This isn’t right. This isn’t _right,_ they hate each other, they get on each other’s nerves and take pride when they get the other to snap, and it’s– Hamid doesn’t _like_ this!

They walk silently for a bit, and the heavy door from before closes over again. Azu asks, “Do you think they—”

“No. They aren’t. Zolf hates him. He– well, he hated him when we last saw each other. E-even if that’s changed, I don’t think Oscar’s his type.”

Azu raises her eyebrows and finishes, “...made this place anti-magic so Wilde could sleep.” Hamid’s mouth opens in something like surprise before he clears his throat and ducks his head, slightly embarrassed. Right, yes, obviously Azu isn’t worried about that. That’s not even something Hamid should be thinking about — it’s hardly the worst of their concerns. Azu goes on, clearly attempting to spare him from his awkwardness, “Grizzop said someone was casting nightmare spells on him, right? And I didn’t see any anti-magic cuffs on him when we first got here.” Hamid nods. Azu has a point, and he’s just– he needs to stop thinking about it. It doesn’t matter.

* * *

It doesn’t matter, not in the slightest, but when Zolf is sitting in his chair, reading another novel, (which Hamid pointedly does not ask about, and Zolf pointedly does not let him see the cover of) and Azu fell asleep a few minutes before, Hamid pipes up, “You and Oscar.” He’s trying to keep going and ask more, but his tongue folds away from the words like they’re poison.

Zolf looks up from his book. “What about us?” 

The ‘us’ rubs Hamid the wrong way, but it’s– it’s okay, it doesn’t matter. “Are you… friends, now?” Zolf shrugs, and Hamid sits up a little more to ask, “Or maybe s-something else?” Zolf sighs, face scrunched up like he’s really thinking about the answer, which makes Hamid’s heart drop into his stomach because he was expecting an immediate ‘no’ and Zolf clearly isn’t going to give him one.

After a moment of quiet (and Azu snoring gently) Zolf hazards, “I think we’re… partners? I guess?” Oh. That’s– fine. It’s okay, Hamid’s okay, it doesn’t matter. Hamid nods slowly, starts to say something, and then thinks better of it and curls up against Azu’s side.

A page turns, and Hamid closes his eyes. Partners. Zolf and Oscar are _partners_ now, and that’s fine. It doesn’t matter. The entire world is falling to pieces; the love life of his old friend doesn’t concern him in the least. It’s just– well, _Oscar?_ Really? Zolf hated him! They were– they hated each other, and there wasn’t one conversation they had without being generally antagonistic! Zolf could do better, honestly. “I didn’t know you played for that team,” Hamid says delicately.

“Wh– _oh._ Oh, no, not– like business partners!” (Hamid’s not going to think about the weight that abruptly dissipates from off of his chest at that. He’s just grateful that things haven’t changed completely, he supposes.) Hamid sits up again, and Zolf looks more than a little uncomfortable.

“Oh! Sorry, I just– well, I heard you two talking earlier and—”

“I’d rather snog one of the robots than—”

“I didn’t mean to assume anything, but he was flirting, and I thought you flirted back—”

“No, that’s– gods no, I mean—”

Azu groans in her sleep, rolling over, and Hamid has to scramble back to avoid getting crushed. There’s another moment of silence, and then the absurdity of the situation dawns on Hamid as he looks up at Zolf, and they both break out into snickering. And Zolf’s taken to bringing a lantern in here so Hamid can see, but it’s dimmed so that he and Azu can sleep, and it’s a comforting glow across the plain stone walls. “Goodnight, Zolf,” murmurs Hamid, still smiling.

Zolf’s face shutters and he looks back to his book. “Yeah. Night.” And it’s all gone. There’s no pretending that they’re not separated by adamantine bars, or that Zolf hasn’t let Hamid stew in a cage for four and a half days, or that he’s been ignoring him in favour of his book and _Oscar fucking Wilde._ Hamid bites the inside of his cheek and curls back up against Azu. Three more days.

Just three more days.

(And as soon as he can reach Zolf again, he’s going to punch him. Just, on principle. He’s earned it.)

**Author's Note:**

> did y'all know that in like, episode two, sasha introduced herself as bertie's security and zolf was like 'and im his courtesan' because uhhhhh? zolf smith, an entire ace man, being like "yeah im a prostitute" in front of people he met literally five minutes ago is fucking _hysterical._ i love him so much. and obviously, i decided that this means he and wilde are comfortable enough around each other (after probably over a year) to make jokes back and forth at each other. anyway, zolf's canon bi ace, and i'm going to be screaming about this for the rest of time, thank you so much zoe for being beholding on main. as per usual, im on tumblr @roswyrm, hmu!!!


End file.
